While this only happens in Firefox (Safari is fine — I use a Mac, so I have no idea how IE behaves), it doesn’t appear to be a straight-up browser incompatibility. In fact, it works properly more often than not. But when this happens, I have to clear my browser cache before I can get it working again. This isn’t a huge deal, but I do wind up losing all of my cached data on occasion. Has anyone else seen this sort of behavior?

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1. Citi Driver’s Edge Card for College Students*
2. Bank of America PetRewards Platinum Plus Visa
3. Pulaski Bank Visa Card
4. Pulaski Bank Gold Visa Card
5. IberiaBank Visa Classic Card
6. IberiaBank Visa Gold Cash Back Rewards Card
7. IberiaBank Visa Platinum Rewards Card

*3% transfer fee with a $5 minimum, but it’s waived with this offer.

If you’re looking for a longer term offer, be sure to check out my list of 0% balance transfer credit card offers that are good for 12 to 15 months. While virtually all of these cards charge a 3% transfer fee, a number of issuers cap this fee. Probably the best option in this regard is the Discover More card, which offer 0% for 12 months with a maximum transfer fee of $75.

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The term “financial planner” is often applied to a variety of finance-related occupations, and its use is largely unregulated. Just about anyone can call himself or herself a “financial planner” without obtaining any licenses, certifications, or any specific credentials. Because there is such a mix of activities and circumstances that, when combined, constitute what is generally accepted as financial planning, the need for certain licenses, certifications, and registrations will depend more on what they actually do in practice than what they call it.

Who’s in charge?

There is no single regulatory authority that governs the conduct of financial planners in the United States. Most financial planners provide investment advice and insurance advice, two independently regulated activities, in addition to the overall financial planning process

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or state securities authorities regulate investment advice that involves securities. State insurance departments regulate insurance advice. There is no required regulation for the financial planning process; however, some financial planners are regulated by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) by becoming CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) practitioners.

Various governmental and non-governmental groups enforce the rules, laws, and regulations that apply to financial planning. Financial planners and financial planning practices register with or receive licensing and certifications from these various entities. These registrations, licenses, and certifications may also be granted to individuals or business that are not practicing financial planning.

Registrations

Any person or business providing advice relating to securities for compensation must register as an investment adviser with either the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or their state’s securities authority. There are a few specific exemptions to the registration requirement; however, those exemptions to securities advice do not apply if it is part of financial planning services. This means any person or business that provides financial planning with advice related to securities must register.

Financial planners and financial planning practices usually register at the state level unless they also manage assets. If they manage assets, the amount of assets that they manage will determine whether they register with the state or the SEC.

Typically, business entities register as Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs), and each person that provides advice on behalf of the RIA is registered as an Investment Adviser Representative (IAR). Registration usually requires an application, an examination, and a filing fee. There are no experience or educational requirements.

Financial planners that also choose to sell securities and collect commissions must also become a Registered Representative of a securities broker/dealer firm. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and securities exchanges primarily regulate the activity of security sales. Additional exams such as the Series 6 and Series 7 are only required to sell securities and do not authorize or qualify someone to be a financial planner, nor are they necessary to practice financial planning.

Licenses

In many states, financial planners and their businesses are required to have appropriate insurance licenses in order to advise on the need, use, and purchase of insurance, even if the planner does not actually sell any insurance. Licensing requirements vary from state to state, but typically involve a pre-licensing education requirement, application, examination, licensing fees, and an ongoing continuing education requirement.

Certification

There are no certifications required in order to offer financial planning services, and the only organization that specifically regulates the actual practice of financial planning is the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board). However, the CFP Board only has authority over CFP® certificants. The CFP Board also enforces practice standards and a code of conduct, and they have the authority to suspend or revoke the certification.

Requirements to become a CFP® professional include the successful completion of approved educational courses in financial planning, a Board administered examination, a bachelor’s degree, three years of financial planning experience, agreement to ethical standards, meet candidate fitness standards, payment of certification fees, and ongoing continuing education.

There are several additional certifications available to financial planners geared toward specialized activities such as college planning or divorce planning. Many of these are granted by membership organizations, and include some type of educational or examination requirement, dues or fees, and possibly continuing education.

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As a followup to my earlier article about the safety of credit unions, I wanted to shed some light on the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), which is administered through National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Thanks to the NCUSIF, no credit union members have ever lost money on insured deposits at an NCUSIF-backed credit union.

What is the NCUSIF?

Established in 1970, the NCUSIF insures your credit union deposits in much the same what that FDIC insurance protects your bank deposits. They collect insurance premiums and a deposit directly from member credit unions based on the total amount of their insured assets. The NCUSIF is also backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. In case of a credit union failure, payouts are typically made to affected customers within three days of the failure.

What’s covered?

From their pamphlet on “How Your Accounts are Federally Insured“:

The NCUSIF provides all members of federally insured credit unions with $100,000 in coverage for their individual accounts. These accounts include regular shares, share drafts (similar to checking), money market accounts, and share certificates… Members with traditional and Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and KEOGH retirement accounts at federally insured credit unions have additional coverage at each federally insured credit union where they qualify and become members… [As of April 1, 2006] the NCUSIF now insures member traditional and Roth IRAs for $250,000 in aggregate at each credit union. Additionally, NCUA insures member KEOGH accounts separately in the aggregate to $250,000 at each credit union.

The NCUA also has a handy online tool for estimating your coverage.

Maximizing your coverage

Since the retirement account protection is separate from insurance coverage on “regular” credit union accounts, an individual can actually protect up to $350,000 at an insured credit union using a combination of regular and retirement accounts. But what if that’s not enough? As is the case with FDIC insurance limits, you can stretch your coverage.

Perhaps the easiest way to stretch your coverage is to simply open accounts at multiple credit unions. Because NCUSIF limits are applied on a per credit union basis, you can open accounts at different credit unions. Just be share not to rely on different branches of the same credit union, as this would do nothing to increase your coverage.

An alternative approach would be to hold your funds in multiple ownership classes. Different individuals get their own limits, as do the same individuals holding funds in different ownership classes. For example, it’s possible for an individual and their spouse to hold up to $100k each in individual accounts with an additional $200k ($100k apiece) being held in a joint account. If that’s still not enough (luck you!) then you might want to explore trust accounts (either revocable or irrevocable) which qualify for separate coverage.

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And now, the roundup…

David put together a list of frugal ways to re-use everyday items.

FMF wrote about the best way to get a raise based on his past experiences.

Jim asked people to share their definition of “rich” and an interesting discussion ensued.

Lazy Man shared some resources for researching a purchase. This dovetails nicely with my recent post on the very same topic.

J.D. shared some tips for creating a quick and dirty budget. As far as I’m concerned, nothing’s quicker (or dirtier!) than our reverse budgeting process.

MBH wants to know how much you’ll fight for in the checkout line. I have to admit that I’m sometimes driven to fight for a pittance just on principle. Not usually in the checkout line where I might inconvenience others, but I’m otherwise not afraid to stand up for myself.

Jeremy wants to encourage you to start planning for holiday gift-giving today.

Pinyo put together an interesting graphic for visualizing wants vs. needs.

Finally, Kay published a list of the states ranked by tax rates. In case you’re curious, Alaska has the lowest rate whereas New Jersey has the highest.

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In case you missed it, we recently decided to open an online savings account with FNBO Direct where we’re collecting a healthy 3.50% APY. During my behind-the-scenes tour, I also noted that FNBO Direct offers an online billpay account that can be linked directly to your online savings account. Well…

They’re now offering a $25 bonus for any FNBO Direct account holders that activate the billpay feature:

Limited Time Bonus Offer: If you are a current FNBO Direct Online Savings Account customer, you can earn a $25.00 bonus for opening a new FNBO Direct BillPay Account. We will credit the bonus to your BillPay Account within 30 days after it is opened. In order to earn the bonus, your BillPay Account must remain open for 90 days and you must make at least one BillPay payment during that period (we reserve the right to deduct the amount of an unearned bonus from any account you have with us). This offer is only applicable to BillPay accounts opened on or after 08/06/08 and is limited to one bonus per household. This promotion is set to end on 09/30/08, however, we may change or discontinue this offer at any time.

So… To participate, you simply need to open an FNBO Direct account, then visit the $25 online billpay promotion page and set up your online billpay account.

Hat tip to Jim @ Blueprint for Financial Prosperity for pointing this out.

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As it turns out, all five of these institutions are “corporate” credit unions that hold assets for regular credit unions. According to Kent Buckham of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), which insures participating credit unions in much the same way that the FDIC insures banks, these losses are likely overblown by market panic, and he doesn’t expect the affected credit unions to have to realize them.

At risk of failure?

Apparently the last time a corporate credit union failed was in 1995, and the regular credit unions that were affected by this failure were ultimately able to recover all of their funds. This isn’t to say that credit unions are bulletproof, however, as nine regular credit unions have failed this year. That being said, some of these were very small credit unions, one of which (Port Trust FCU) had only $461,000 in assets.

Here’s a quick look at four of the largest regular credit unions in the United States. The star ratings refer to Bankrate’s most recent Safe & Sound ratings for each institution:

• Navy Federal Credit Union - 3 stars
• Pentagon Federal Credit Union - 4 stars
• Alliant Credit Union - 3 stars
• The Golden 1 Credit Union - 4 stars

(5 stars = best, 1 star = worst; most institutions fall in the 3-4 star range)

For the sake of comparison, check out my list of the safest online banks.

As alluded to above, the vast majority of credit unions are insured by the NCUA, which provides coverage similar to that provided by the FDIC for deposits in regular banks. Just be sure to stay under the limits at an insured institution and you should be okay. In fact, we have some CDs at Pentagon Federal Credit Union, and I’m not losing any sleep. PenFed seems healthy enough, and they’re also NCUA insured.

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A couple of weeks ago, I noted that we opened an online savings account with FNBO Direct. All in all, the account opening process was incredibly easy, and the test deposits showed up in our linked (local) checking account within one business day. Two days after that, our $1 minimum deposit had been pulled from our checking account and was sitting at FNBO Direct earning 3.50% APY. While I haven’t had an opportunity to move additional money over to FNBO Direct, I wanted to go ahead and give you guys an idea of how things look under the hood.

Gaining access

The login process is pretty standard for a modern online bank. After entering your username, you’re prompted to answer a pair of security questions, and then you’re greeted with a personal message. Once you verify that the personal message is indeed yours (indicating that you’re really on the FNBO Direct website, as opposed to an impostor, you enter your password and you’re on your way. Note that the security questions or only necessary for your first login, or if you switch to a different computer.

Behind the scenes

Inside the FNBO Direct website, you’ll find a very clean interface including all of the standard options for an online bank (see below; click to expand). In fact, it’s so clean that it borders on boring. But guess what? Boring is good when you’re talking about an online bank. The pages all load quickly, and it’s easy to find what you want.

I had planned on including more screenshots, but there’s not that much more to see. There are tabs for managing your account settings, transferring funds (either amongst accounts within the bank or with external banks), and online billpay.

As I’ve noted in previous posts, I’ve been quite impressed by FNBO Direct so far — the combination of safety, a high interest rate, and a user-friendly website is pretty hard to beat.

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What is an FHA home loan?

FHA loans are mortgages that are insured by the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA doesn’t actually make loans; rather, they insure loans issued by federally qualified lenders. These loans are only made to individuals and non-profit/government agencies that are approved to participate in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs (more on qualifying, below).

Advantages of an FHA vs. conventional home loans

FHA home loans have a number of advantages over conventional home loans. These include a lower required downpayment, competitive interest rates, lower closing costs that can be included in the amount of the loan, the ability to include re-modeling/repair costs in the amount of the loan, no pre-payment penalty, and possible leniency during hard financial times, which may translate into a reduced risk of foreclosure.

You can also often qualify for an FHA loan even if you’ve had relatively recent financial problems. For example, you may be able to obtain an FHA loan within 2-3 years of bankruptcy or foreclosure as long of you’ve maintained good credit in the mean time. It’s also easier to use gifts to cover your downpayment and/or closing costs when using an FHA loan product.

Disadvantages of an FHA vs. conventional home loan

Despite the foregoing advantages of FHA loans, there are also some drawbacks of this type of mortgage. For example, an FHA loan might not be large enough to cover the cost of the home your are interested in buying. While the FHA periodically increases their limits, these sorts of limits are a big part of the reason that FHA loans lost favor starting in the 1990s - as home prices began shooting up, more and more properties were ineligible for an FHA loan. If you’re curious about FHA loan limits in your area, check out this calculator.

Another potential disadvantage of FHA home loans is that they don’t come in as many flavors as conventional loans. Rather, they’re designed specifically to serve the needs of long-term homeowners, and thus tend to have relatively conservative terms. In addition, while you might end up paying private mortgage insurance (PMI) on a standard home loan, the insurance premiums associated with an FHA home loan are built into the loan, such that you may end up paying more for your mortgage insurance over the life of the loan.

Qualifying for an FHA home loan

While anyone can apply for an FHA home loan, they are most frequently used by first-time homebuyers. To apply, you must have a valid social security number and be a legal U.S. resident. The FHA’s mortgage programs do not typically have income limits, though you must have sufficient income to qualify for the mortgage payment alongside any other debts that you might have. Likewise, the FHA doesn’t have minimum credit score requirements, though past credit performance will likely be used in determining eligibility.

If you’re curious about whether or not you qualify, LendingTree has created a nifty little online FHA eligibility calculator.

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This is just a quick note to let everyone know Amazon.com is currently offering a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. If you’re not familiar with Amazon Prime, it’s their shipping program that provides you with free two-day delivery of just about anything that would otherwise qualify for their Super Saver shipping, but with no minimum purchase amount, as well as dirt cheap overnight shipping ($3.99/item).

We’ve been members of Amazon Prime since last October and have been very happy with the service. Sure, you can get most of this stuff shipped to you for free if you’re patient (Super Saver shipping can be s-l-o-w depending on where you live and what you order), and willing to group your purchases together to exceed the $25 minimum for Super Saver shipping. Even despite that caveat, I can honestly say that our Amazon Prime membership has been well worth the price in terms of convenience and time saved. This has been especially true as gas prices have moved higher and we’ve shifted more and more of our purchasing online.

Just a quick word of caution… The free trial auto-renews into the annual (paid) version at the end of the month, so be sure to go in and tell them that you want to cancel if you decide you don’t want to keep it.

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1. Lexus
2. Mercury
3. Cadillac
4. Toyota
5. Acura
6. Buick
7. BMW
8. Lincoln
9. Honda
10. Jaguar

Interestingly, Ford Motor Company nailed down three of the top ten spots with Mercury (#2), Lincoln (#8), and Jaguar (#10) all placing in the top ten. My personal favorite, Honda, slipped from 5th in 2007 to 9th in 2008.

Here’s a look at the top models by segment:

‘Regular’ Cars

• Subcompact: Hyundai Accent
• Compact: Toyota Prius
• Midsize: Buick Century
• Large: Ford Crown Victoria

Sporty Cars

• Compact: Mazda Miata
• Midsize: Chevy Monte Carlo

Premium cars

• Entry: Lexus IS 300
• Midsize: Lexus ES 330
• Large: Lexus LS 430
• Sporty: Lexus SC 430

Sport Utility Vehicles

• Compact: Honda Element and Toyota RAV4 (tie)
• Midsize: Toyota Highlander
• Large: Toyota Sequoia

Pickup Trucks

• Midsize: Ford Ranger
• Large: Toyota Tundra

For the sake of comparison, Consumer Reports released their list of the most reliable cars for 2008 earlier this year. These rankings are broken down by type of vehicle, though the categories differ slightly from the J.D. Power rankings:

• Family cars: Toyota Prius, Honda Accord (4-cyl), Ford Fusion (V6)
• Large cars: Buick Lucerne (V8), Toyota Avalon, Dodge Charger (V6)
• Small cars: Toyota Yaris Hatchback, Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris Sedan
• Minivans: Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, Chrysler Town & Country
• Small SUVS: Honda Element, Mitsubishi Outlander, Subaru Forester (turbo)
• Midsized SUVs: Toyota Highlander, Honda Pilot, Toyota 4Runner

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If a customer has a CD at a bank that fails, is there a risk that the account will stop earning interest until assets are purchased by another institution, or when the other bank takes over may it change the interest rate on the CD?

When a bank fails, the FDIC typically transfers the dead bank’s deposits to a new bank in fairly short order. Thus, unless you have a “brokered” CD (more on this below), there’s not much risk of extended downtime. It’s also worth noting that federal law requires the FDIC to pay 100% of your deposits up to FDIC insurance limits, including both principal and interest.

While the interest that you’ve earned to date is safe (assuming you’ve respected the FDIC limits), it’s quite possible that your rate will change. The reason for this is that the new bank isn’t required to honor the terms of the failed institution’s deposit agreements. The good news is that you’re not subject to early withdrawal penalties if you don’t like the new terms.

Two examples of CDs at failed banks

When NetBank failed in the fall of 2007, their deposits were transferred to ING Direct. In contrast, when the FDIC takeover of IndyMac Bank and turned it into IndyMac Federal Bank, they maintained the high CD rates that were being offered just before IndyMac’s failure.

Be careful with brokered CDs

As noted above, the situation is a bit different for “brokered” CDs, which are purchased through a third-party (such as a brokerage firm) instead of directly from a bank. In this case, the CDs are rarely passed directly to the new bank. Instead, the funds typically get wired back to the broker. This can take some time, however, as the FDIC has to first cross-reference the owners of the brokered CDs against the list of depositors at the bank to ensure that they don’t have other deposits at the bank that might push them over the FDIC insurance limits.

This brings up another point about brokered CDs… If you’re thinking about buying one, be sure you know where the broker plans to deposit your money. Otherwise, depending on the size of the CD and the amount of money you already have at a given bank, you might end up inadvertently exceed the FDIC insurance limits.

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And now, here are some articles for your end-of-summer reading pleasure…

Ron put together a great list of tips for increasing your productivity.

MBH talked about eBay’s new feedback system. He also put together a list of 118 finance bloggers that use Twitter. In case you’re curious, you can follow my Twitter feed here.

Jeremy talked about how correlations among asset classes affect your portfolio. If you’re interested in asset allocation, check it out.

SVB talked about grading your personal finance skillz. Speaking of which… I just published a couple of articles on this general topic this week: The State of Financial Education in the U.S. and Ten Things Teens Should Know About Money.

NCN took a look back at the financial impact of their new baby.

JD talked about hidden price increases at the grocery store.

Connie talked about why gas costs so much. I tackled this question a couple of months ago when I wrote about what goes into the price of gas.

Smithee finally woke up and smelled the coffee — no more bottled water for him.

JLP talks about how you know when you’ve saved enough.

Finally, PaidTwice talked about how to get the most out of coupons.

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With that as a backdrop, I though it would be interesting to take a look at the reliability of Bankrate’s Safe & Sound rating system, upon which my list of safest online banks was based. This is admittedly a very anecdotal account, but it’s interesting all the same…

About Bankrate’s Safe & Sound rating system

For starters, just what is the “Safe & Sound” rating system?

Bankrate.com’s Safe & Sound service is a proprietary system designed to provide information on the relative financial strength and stability of U.S. commercial banks, savings institutions and credit unions. The system employs a series of twenty-two tests to measure the capital adequacy, asset quality, profitability, and liquidity (CAEL) of each rated financial institution. Individual performance levels are determined from publicly available regulatory filings and are compared to asset-size peer norms, industry standards and key absolute benchmarks. Combined results form the basis for our Composite CAEL and Star Ratings…

So the system purportedly provides insight in the financial strength of stability of commercial banks in the United States. The star ratings work as follows:

5 stars - Superior
4 stars - Sound
3 stars - Performing
2 stars - Below peer group
1 star - Lowest rated

The majority of banks fall into the 3-4 star range.

A closer look at a recent failure

So how does the system perform when it comes to predicting failures? As I said, this is highly anecdotal, but… On July 25th, First Heritage Bank, N.A. of Newport Beach, CA was closed down by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, and the FDIC took it into receivership. So what did Bankrate have to say about all of this? Well…

As of the date of the failure, First Heritage Bank had a 3-star rating, indicated that this bank was “performing.” In fact, even as I write this, First Heritage is still listed as having a 3-star rating:

For the sake of comparison, ING Direct has a 3-star rating just like First Heritage, whereas E*Trade Bank, HSBC Direct, and Emigrant Direct all have 2-star ratings. The top online bank right now is FNBO Direct with a 4-star rating.

Lessons learned

The biggest lesson here is that Bankrate’s ratings can’t be viewed as an absolute indicator of bank health. While I have little doubt that the banks that they rate as being unhealthy are indeed unhealthy (e.g., IndyMac had a 1-star rating prior to their failure), it’s clear that an apparently healthy rating doesn’t necessarily mean that a particular bank is a safe bet.

It remains unclear (at least to me) whether this particular case was due to a flaw in Bankrate’s methodology (or the underlying data), or due to the fact that the Safe & Sound ratings are only updated quarterly — a lot can change in a few months. Regardless, this is just another reason that you should never exceed FDIC insurance limits, no matter how much confidence you have in your bank.

Hat tip to Sam for pointing out this article.

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Curious about what today’s student do and don’t know? Here’s a sample of the findings from the 31 question survey:

• Only 48% of respondents knew that a credit card holder who only pays the minimum amount on monthly card balances will pay more in annual finance charges than a card holder who pays their balance in full.
• Just 40% were aware that they could lose their health insurance if their parents become unemployed.
• A measly 17% knew that stocks are likely to yield higher returns than savings bonds and checking/savings accounts over the next 18 years even though there has never been an 18-year period where this wasn’t true.

Clearly, we have a long way to go when it comes to educating the next generation about financial issues! I’d be curious to know how my contemporaries would’ve done when we were in high school (or college). Perhaps we weren’t any better off…

On the bright side, 88% knew that a savings account was a good place for money that you’d need to spend on tuition within the next year and 82% knew that certificates of deposit (CDs) aren’t typically associated with spending (yes, that’s from an actual question).

Interestingly, there were also some apparent demographic trends in the data. For example, caucasian students correctly answered 53% of the questions, while Hispanic and African American students correctly answered 45% and 41% of the questions, resectively. Amongst college students, the numbers were 63% vs. 60% vs. 55%.

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For example, when asked about basic financial concepts, high school seniors were only able to correctly answer 48% of the questions that they were asked, and college students didn’t fare much better. In fact, college seniors correctly answered just 65% of the questions that they were asked.

So, what does Bankrate think that teens need to know? Here’s their list:

1. Balance a checkbook
2. Budget money
3. Finance college
4. Establish credit
5. Identify wants vs. needs
6. Deal with debt
7. Pay taxes
8. Consider all costs
9. Save for the future
10. Stretch a dollar

I was surprised to see that there really wasn’t anything on this list about managing credit cards. I guess that some of this stuff could technically fall under establishing credit and dealing with debt. However, I think there’s a big gap between securing credit and dealing with debt — namely, managing your available credit wisely.

I also think that it would be valuable to teach kids about the loan process in general. While they talked a bit about student loans, kids leaving high school should (in my opinion) have at least a cursory knowledge of how things like car loans and even home mortgages work.

Finally, I find it hard to believe that they didn’t include anything about investing on this list. It’s really never too early to start educating kids about investing basics, and teens are certainly old enough for a basic education on investing and financial markets — e.g., stocks vs. bonds, the power of compounding, etc.

Of course, regardless of what’s on this list, it’s clear pretty clear from the statistics presented above that they’re not getting this info at school. Thus, it’s extra important to ensure that they get this stuff at home.

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I just received an e-mail last night saying that Washington Mutual is increasing the interest rate on their savings account to 3.75% APY. This puts it ahead of both HSBC Direct and FNBO Direct, who are currently offering 3.50% APY for their online savings accounts.

I’m guessing that this increase is an attempt to attract funds in the wake of all the negative news about WaMu’s financial condition. As long as you respect the FDIC insurance limits, you’re probably fine. Nonetheless, I’ll be sticking with my shiny new FNBO Direct account, complete with it’s 4-star Safe & Sound rating.

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This is just a quick followup to my earlier post about opening an FNBO Direct savings account. To recap, I filled out the application on Saturday night and they said they’d be make a couple of test deposits into our linked checking account within 1-3 business days.

As it turns out, the test deposits showed up on Monday morning, and I hopped back over to the FNBO Direct website shortly thereafter to verify them. With that done, I set up our login credentials and… Well, that’s it. Our account is open and ready for business. We’re currently on the road for a short family vacation, but I’ll be sure to publish more details once I’ve had more time to poke around behind the scenes.

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